Bug Description

Binary package hint: gnome-control-center

Following instructions for testing external monitor on a laptop in http://testcases.qa.ubuntu.com/Hardware/GFX/ExternalPrimary
the resolutions of the external monitor are not detected properly. When I try to change them, also the Laptop Screen flickers and changes sizes (with "same image" option disabled, of course).
Worse is when I try to set the external monitor to be primary (by turning off the laptop screen), both screens turn off.
My steps:
# Plugged external monitor
# Go to Monitor in the Unity launcher.
# Both screens are detected.
# Tried different resolutions and more or less some of them worked (there where some resolutions external monitor isn't capable of).
# Selected Laptop monitor and switched off, click apply.
# Both monitors turned off and had to wait for the 30 second dialog to restore the last configuration. I was hoping the laptop screen to turn off and the external monitor be the primary.

1- i am now unable to switch screen between internal and external with Fn+F7
2- At boot the external screen is detected but becomes a clone of the internal screen, including taking its size, so I have only a portion of my big external screen that is used
3- if I try to switch with Fn-F7 during Xorg initialisation, before the mouse of Xorg appears, then both screen goes black and are not usable again
4- If I let both screen initialize and kde start, then I am in situation 2, but switch screen hard button is inoperative, and kde monitor settings reports only one screen

I have the same problem, and i think some other people have it as well...
I'm using Ubuntu 11.04 on an Alienware M11x R2.
At the time, I can only use both monitors (laptop's and external) if both are displaying the same thing. On alienware m11x, the external monitor can go up to 1920px resolution, but laptop monitor only to 1366px... At the time, the system only allows me to go up to 1024px when both monitors are up...

Could somebody create "gsd-debug-randr" file in you user directory, restart the session, change the screen settings and copy the "gsd-debug-randr.log" which got created in the user directory to the bug?

[The Design Team has identified this as a blocker issue for precise, so setting the Importance to Critical. This may be adjusted down once the bug has received further design and engineering analysis, if appropriate.]

The design team flagged this as a possible critical issue for us to solve in the development release (and SRU to natty and/or oneiric, if the fixes are suitable and appropriate to backport).

However, I notice this report only has comments from natty users, so I am wondering if this issue might have gotten solved in oneiric? (I haven't seen it on oneiric, but then I don't recall ever seeing it on natty either.) So if someone has oneiric installed and still sees this same bug, please indicate your verification (and post a gsd log as seb128 requested).

To get this resolved, we need someone running the precise development version who can test fixes for us. If anyone is on precise, still reproducing the bug, and willing to do some test work, please raise your hand.

(I've listed these tasks in the Next Actions section of the bug description)

Another workaround is to switch your primary display from laptop screen to external monitor/TV by moving laptop to the right in display settings, since left screen is always default in Unity. When you do that, you can turn off the laptop screen http://i.imgur.com/ZD8YE.png